The institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.16e standard was adopted in 2007 as a sixth standard for international mobile telecommunication (IMT)-2000 in the name of ‘WMAN-OFDMA TDD’ by the ITU-radio communication sector (ITU-R) which is one of sectors of the international telecommunication union (ITU). An IMT-advanced system has been prepared by the ITU-R as a next generation (i.e., 4th generation) mobile communication standard following the IMT-2000. It was determined by the IEEE 802.16 working group (WG) to conduct the 802.16m project for the purpose of creating an amendment standard of the existing IEEE 802.16e as a standard for the IMT-advanced system. As can be seen in the purpose above, the 802.16m standard has two aspects, that is, continuity from the past (i.e., the amendment of the existing 802.16e standard) and continuity to the future (i.e., the standard for the next generation IMT-advanced system). Therefore, the 802.16m standard needs to satisfy all requirements for the IMT-advanced system while maintaining compatibility with a mobile WiMAX system conforming to the 802.16e standard.
A wireless communication system including a Relay Station (RS) is recently being developed. The RS functions to expand the cell coverage and to improve transmission performance. An effect that the cell coverage can be obtained when a base station (BS) provides services to a mobile station (MS), placed at the coverage boundary of the BS, through the RS. Furthermore, the transmission capacity can be increased when the RS improves transmission reliability of a signal between the BS and the MS. Although the MS exists within the coverage of the BS, the RS may be used when the MS is placed in a shadow region.
A frame configuration of a system into which an RS has been introduced may be different from a frame configuration of a system into which an RS has not been introduced. Part of the frame may be used for only communication between a BS and an MS or between an RS and an MS. Part of the frame may be used for communication between a BS and an RS.
A bandwidth request channel (BRCH) may be allocated in uplink (UL). The BRCH is used to request radio resources for sending UL data or a control signal by an MS. Furthermore, in a system into which an RS has been introduced, BRCHs may be allocated to not only an MS, but also an RS in order to request radio resources from a BS.
There is a method of efficiently allocating BRCHs for an RS in a system into which an RS has been introduced.